Rooikat

The Rooikat (Afrikaans for "Caracal"; literally "Red cat") is a wheeled armoured fighting vehicle built in South Africa for the South African Army. It was designed for combat reconnaissance and seek and destroy operations. Its secondary roles include combat support, anti-armour and anti-guerrilla operations. The Rooikat is intended for deep penetration missions, so the wheeled design was needed for speed and to counter sandy desert conditions that might slow tracked vehicles.

Production history

Rooikat Armoured Fighting Vehicles

Designed to replace the Eland, the Rooikat came too late for the war in Angola. It was designed to incorporate lessons learned from the bush war.

Two versions exist and are designated according to their main guns:

• Rooikat 76: The Rooikat 76 armoured fighting vehicle, with a 76mm gun, was developed by Reemit for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and has been in operational use with the SANDF since 1980.^[4]
• Rooikat 105: In 1990 an upgrade and redesign programme was started by Reumech OMC to customise the Rooikat for the international market, and by 1994 the development of the Rooikat 105 variant with a 105mm rifled gun was completed.^[5]

The Rooikat 105 is designed for high mobility day and night combat operations. Passive image intensifiers and thermal imaging equipment for night driving, navigation and weapon deployment permit round-the-clock combat operations. The Rooikat 105 is equipped with a GT7 105mm anti-tank gun. The gun fires the full range of Nato full-pressure 105mm ammunition including generation I, II and III rounds. The gun, fitted with a 51-caliber thermal sleeve encased barrel, fires six rounds a minute. There are two 7.62mm machine guns, one co-axial to the main armament and one at the commander's position, for general purpose ground and air defence. The vehicle is equipped with two banks of 81mm smoke grenade launchers, mounted in a forward firing position on each side of the turret. The system is electrically operated. The smoke grenades form a dense protective smoke screen, which can be sustained using an exhaust smoke generator. The digital fire control system takes data from a suite of sensors and provides an automatic fire control solution. Automatic data input includes target range from a laser rangefinder, target speed and direction derived from tracking the target, crosswind speed, weapon tilt and the characteristics of the weapon. Manual data input includes ammunition type and environmental data. The fire control system allows the Rooikat to engage enemy targets while on the move across rough terrain. The time between laser ranging the target and firing is approximately two seconds. Three variations of fire directing systems are offered. The most complex system incorporates a primary stabilised gunner's sight, automatic computation and implementation of ballistic offset of the weapon, electro-mechanical gun control, stabilised main weapon, gunner's sight with day / night channel slaved to the main weapon and an independent panoramic commander's sight.^[6][7]

Rooikat ZA35 Self Propelled Anti-aircraft Gun

This Rooikat version was developed by ARMSCOR in the early 90s. The ZA-35 SPAAG is armed with two Lyttleton Engineering M-35 guns. These guns have a combined rate of fire at 1 100 rounds per minute and fires HE-FRAG rounds against air targets and AP-I against light armored vehicles. The ZA-35 is fitted with an EDR 110 surveillance and tracking radar, which can track up to 100 air targets simultaneously. The antenna can be raised to a height of about 5 meters for increased visibility, when the vehicle is stationary. It can provide targeting data to other nearby SPAAGs and air defense systems, which do not have radars. It is also fitted with a computerized fire control system, fully stabilized gunner's sight and a laser rangefinder.^[8]

Rooikat SAM

The Rooikat SAM was intended to be used together with the Rooikat SPAAG, this ZA-HVM short-range SAM, would also have been based on the same chassis.

Rooikat Antitank

A prototype Rooikat antitank was also developed with a new turret to incorporate antitank missiles.

Technology Demonstrators

One Rooikat was turned into a conventional vehicle electric drive technology demonstrator (CVED) and displayed at AAD2006 in Cape Town in September of that year. The CVED project involved LMT, HIT, IAD, Nezrotek, Hotchinson (France), Kessler Magnet Motor (Germany) and MTU (Germany). VEG Magazine reported in 2006 the vehicle was fitted with a power supply control system feeding eight wheel-hub mounted M67/0 electric units and a two-phase pneumatic gearbox.

Combat history

Prior to South Africa's 1994 elections, the South African Defence Force (SADF) deployed the Rooikat largely as an internal security vehicle. ^[9] It saw action in Lesotho during Operation Boleas.^[1]

Capability

• Can climb a 1 m earth vertical step.
• Can cross a 2-metre-wide trench at a crawl 1 m @ 60 km/h.
• Can ford water 1.5 m deep.
• Can climb a gradient of 70 degrees.
• Can traverse a gradient of 30 degrees.

Variants

Variant	Description	Comment	Image
Rooikat 76	Original version	Denel GT4 76mm main gun
Rooikat 105	Upgraded version	Denel GT7 105mm main gun
Rooikat ZA 35	Anti aircraft gun platform	SPAAG twin 35mm anti aircraft auto cannons
Rooikat SAM	Turret with Surface to Air Missile platform	Prototype only
Rooikat anti-tank	Turret with four antitank missiles	Prototype only

Operators

 South Africa - South African National Defence Force: 240 units.^[10][11]

See also

• Eland Mk7
• Maneuver Combat Vehicle
• Vextra 105
• SdKfz 234
• T27 Armored Car
• B1 Centauro

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rooikat.

• Manufacturer's website (Accessed 28 July 2008)
• Factfile on Vehicle (Accessed 25 February 2009)
• Rooikat 76 Armoured Fighting Vehicle

Armoured Fighting Vehicles of South Africa Armoured cars Eland Marmon-Herrington Rooikat Infantry Fighting Vehicles Badger Mbombe Ratel Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Buffel Casspir Hippo Mamba Marauder Matador Maverick Okapi RCV-9 Reva RG-12 RG-19 RG-31 Nyala RG-32 Scout RG-33 RG-34 RG-35 RG-41 RG Outrider PUMA M26-15 Artillery, transport and combat engineering Chubby G6 Rhino Mfezi Valkiri SAMIL